Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 9 (IANS) Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi Wednesday said a proposal to review the development fee at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) and Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International (CSI) airports has been received.

“The proposal for review of development fee at IGI Airport, New Delhi and CSI Airport Mumbai, has recently been received by AERA (Airports Economic Regulatory Authority),” Ravi informed the Lok Sabha Wednesday.

According to him, the fee is a pre-funding mechanism for financing mega-airport projects like in Delhi and Mumbai when other options are not available.

Currently, the development fee at the city’s IGI airport is Rs.200 for domestic passenger and Rs.1,300 per international passenger.

In Mumbai, it is Rs.100 for domestic and Rs.600 per international passenger.

Earlier in the month, the minister had informed parliament that Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which operates IGI, collected Rs.1,199 crore in development fee till January 2011.

The government had approved the levy of development fee from March 1, 2009, for a period of 36 months, which would be used to bridge the funding gap of Rs.1,827 crore in the development of IGI airport.

“Funds collected through the levy can be utilised only for the construction of such aeronautical assets which will be transferred by DIAL to AAI (Airports Authority of India) upon completion of lease period,” he said.

Meanwhile, AAI gets 45.99 percent of the gross revenue earned by DIAL.

DIAL is a joint venture consortium led by GMR Group, which has a majority holding of 54 percent, followed by state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) with 26 percent and Fraport AG and Eraman Malaysia with 10 percent each.